AT&T, to get government approval of its acquisition of BellSouth Corp., last month promised not to impose a tiered system of wired broadband Internet access for the next two years, increasing hope among retail industry groups for federal legislation designed to keep the Internet a level playing field for e-commerce companies.

AT&T, to get government approval of its acquisition of BellSouth Corp., last month promised not to impose a tiered system of wired broadband Internet access for the next two years, increasing hope among retail industry groups for federal legislation designed to keep the Internet a level playing…